Overview

Pianist Seong-Jin Cho and debuting conductor Antonello Manacorda make a persuasive case for Mendelssohn’s Second Concerto, an elegantly crafted work from an era when concertos were often mere vehicles for virtuosic showmanship. Anton Webern’s mid-1930s orchestration of Bach’s Ricercare from The Musical Offering finds the gleaming throughlines in this polyphonic marvel. Brahms’s fourth and final symphony draws on a lifetime of experience and study, resulting in a work that’s both intensely experimental and deeply traditional. The astonishing finale turns Bach’s mournful Cantata No. 150, “For Thee, O Lord, I Long,” into an elaborate passacaglia.